The National Environment Agency (NEA) warned that the dry weather could be here to stay till the end of this month, or early March.

NEA said the weekend showers, which came after 22 days of no rain, were due to localised wind convergence over the island.

The weekend showers also did little to lift the country out of the dry spell. As of Sunday, 33 stations including the Changi climate station recorded daily rainfall total of less than 1mm since Jan 16.

Such dry spells, defined by the Meteorological Service Singapore (MSS) as "a period of at least 15 consecutive days with daily rainfall total of less than 1mm in many parts of the island", are common during the end of the north-east monsoon season.

An MSS spokesman said: "Spatially, the current dry spell this year has been more widespread compared with the dry spells in 2009 and 2011.

"In terms of duration, the current dry spell is longer than that in 2011."

Assistant Professor Winston Chow from the Department of Geography at National University of Singapore said this year's dry period reached our sunny island earlier, most likely due to the "colder and drier than normal air from the origin of the monsoon in China".